1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a living support system and a living support method that support a stand-up motion of a user sitting on a chair.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years in which the number of elderly people rises while the birthrate falls in developed countries, the need for watching and living support for the elderly people increase. In particular, elderly people may have difficulty in keeping the quality of life (QOL) for living at home due to degradation in physical ability with increasing age. To prevent the elderly people from getting Sarcopenia etc. and to keep the physical ability, it is important to keep the muscle mass by continuing an exercise by a certain amount or more. However, the elderly people who have difficulty in going out due to the degradation in physical ability and hence likely stay at home may be caught in a vicious cycle that keeping a certain amount of exercise is difficult and the muscle mass is more decreased.
In recent years, regarding such the situation, there are suggested various devices that support a stand-up motion from a chair which is the starting point of living action.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-200409 discloses a stand-up motion assisting robot in which a support unit of the robot assists a stand-up motion of a user sitting on a chair by following the movement of the chest of the user. The stand-up motion assisting robot with such a configuration can assist the stand-up motion of the user only with the assisting robot.
Also, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-10874 discloses a dental treatment chair that assists a stand-up motion of a patient by elevating a pad part supporting the elbow of the patient obliquely upward. The dental treatment chair with such a configuration can assist the stand-up motion of the patient only with the chair.